Salvation
| Outline The Need God's Holiness Man's Sin The Sinful Nature Sinful Deeds The Wages of Sin Physical & Spiritual Death Eternity in Hell The Provision Christ's Death & Resurrection Sinless Substitutionary Satisfactory Sufficient Victorious The Requirement Repentance Faith The Means By Election By Grace Through Faith The Result Forgiveness of Sin The Process of Sanctification The Promise of Heaven Related Terms Justification Redemption Regeneration |
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The Bible declares that, above all else, God is holy. A more thorough explanation of this is found on my Nature of God page. For my purposes here, though, it is sufficient to say that the holiness of God refers to His moral purity. God cannot sin. Neither can he be tempted to sin. In addition, He cannot associate with sin. He cannot tolerate sin. It is not even that He will not tolerate sin. He cannot tolerate it. He cannot even allow sin into His presence. It is not possible for Him. But Man is sinful, and Man is guilty of breaking God's Laws. Therefore, God cannot allow sinful Man into His presence.
Man's Sin:
Sin is defined as disobedience to God. Doing that which God has commanded us to do is sin. Likewise, failure to do that which God has commanded us to do is sin. And all mankind has been found guilty of sin. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not a man, woman, or child who has not sinned. Consider the words of Romans 3:10-12:
By what means is Man found to be guilty before God? He is guilty on account of possessing the sinful nature, as well as on account of committing sinful deeds.
The Sinful Nature:
The sinful nature can be defined as the condition of our heart that makes us prone to sin. According to Psalm 51:5, Man is born with the sin nature. It says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." According to Ephesians 2:3, sin is indeed part of our nature. For it says that we are "by nature, children of wrath."
Adam, the first man who ever lived, did not possess the sin nature. When created, he was the perfect man. He had known no sin. He did not have within him that driving force which causes Man to sin. His sin was simply the result of choice. He made the decision to sin, and could not cite the words of Romans 7:17, saying, "It is not I who sin, but sin that dwells in me."
However, when Adam did make that choice to sin, he became a sinful being. The sin nature became alive in him. As his descendents, all men have since inherited the sin nature from him. Just as we inherit our physical attributes from our fathers, so do we inherit the sin nature.
As a result of possessing the sinful nature, Man's intellect is blinded (II Cor. 4:4), his mind is reprobate (Rom. 1:28), his understanding is darkened and separated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18), his emotions are defiled (Rom. 1:21, 24, & 26; Titus 1:15), and his will is enslaved to sin and is in opposition to God (Rom. 6:20; 7:20).
Sinful Deeds:
Possessing the sin nature guarantees that we will commit acts of sin. I will go even a step further and say that, apart from Christ, we are enslaved by the sin nature. He who is without Christ can do none else but sin. According to Romans 8:7, "the carnal mind is emnity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, nor indeed can be."
Everything sinful Man does, even that which may be considered a good deed, is sin. I Corinthians 10:31 says, "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Sinful Man does nothing for the glory of God. Even when he does a good deed, he does it for his own glory, seeking the praise of his fellow man. All is done with the motive to promote self.
Along the same lines, it is true that Man lives by the addage, "If it feels good, do it." We need not look far to see examples of people engaging in sinful behavior simply because they want to. It gives them a momentary high, or perhaps there is the thrill of attempting to do something without getting caught. Whatever the rationale, the true motivation is the same. The philosophical term for it is hedonism, and it is described as the desire to do that which makes you happy. All too often, we find people doing that which makes them happy for the moment, regardless of the consequences of their actions, and even regardless of whether or not the happiness gained lasts for any length of time.
The Wages of Sin:
"The wage of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). This is a fairly clear and concise statement, but exactly what does it mean? The term wages means earnings. As an employee, I go to work every day and do the job expected of me. In return, the company gives me a check at the end of every pay period. The amount of money I get is dependent upon how many hours I worked during the pay period, since I draw an hourly income. My employer and I have agreed that the work I do is worth a certain amount of money per hour. And by going to work every day, I earn the money I receive at the end of the pay period. Simply put then, Rom. 6:23 tells us that by sinning, we earn death. Just as I deserve a paycheck at the end of a pay period on the job, we deserve death as the result of our sin.
Now, death is defined as seaparation. The Bible speaks of two kinds of death; Physical Death and Spiritual Death.
Physical Death is simply defined as the separation of the spirit from the physical body. Spiritual death is defined as the separation of the spirit from God. When most people think of Spiritual Death, they think of hell. Hell may well be said to be part of the teaching, but not the totality of it. Therefore, we would probably do well to draw the distinction between the two.
Spiritual Death:
Eternity in Hell:
Christ's Death and Resurrection
Substitutionary
Satisfactory
Sufficient
Victorious
Faith
I have heard it said that God, in eternity past, had foreknowledge concerning who would ultimately be saved, but that He did not choose them. However, disagree with this view. I believe that the doctrine of election is Scriptural. Allow me to list a number of references, and then to comment on a few of them, if I may.
All of the following verses refer to believers as being elect, chosen, called, or predestined.
Mark 13:20 (parallel to Matt. 24:22)
Mark 13:27 (parallel to Matt. 24:31)
As you read these verses, I would ask you to keep this in mind: I have heard some say that there is no difference between God’s foreknowledge of those who would be saved and His election of them. However, just by looking at the Greek words for “foreknowledge” and “election”, we find that they are indeed two different words with very different meanings.
The Greek word, translated “foreknow” is “proginōskō”. It, of course, means “to know before.”
In many of the verses I listed above, either “elect” or “chosen” is used to describe believers. In each instance, without exception, the Greek adjective, “eklektos”, is used. Its literal meaning is “picked out; chosen.” The terms “foreknow” and “elect” (or “choose”) are never used synonymously within Scripture.
Therefore, to claim that God possessed foreknowledge of who would be saved, but also that He did not actually choose or determine who would be saved, is to deny the clear teaching of no less than 23 New Testament verses.
Having established that we were elected, or chosen, by God, I would recommend considering the basis upon which we were chosen, as well as the purpose for which we were chosen.
To begin with, it is clear from Scripture that our election was not based on any merit of our own, or on any good work we would do after receiving salvation. For example, God did not choose Billy Graham because He knew that he would become a great evangelist. This truth is found in Romans 9:11, wherein Paul contrasts Jacob and Esau by saying, “(for the children, not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls)”.
If, then, election is not based on works, it must, of necessity, be based on grace. And, indeed, it is. Consider the words of Romans 11:5-6: “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
So we find that election, like salvation itself, is based solely upon the grace of God. And the grace of God may be simply defined as God’s unmerited favor. This being true, it raises one more question: Why would God choose some for salvation but not others?
The answer to that question is found in Ephesians
1:5, which
tells us that God has “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus
Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” This
means that God
chose those whom He would save because He wanted to.
Whether or not we like the concept of election and the basis for it, as presented in Scripture, is inconsequential. Ours is not to approve of the ways of God, but to accept them. Due to the sovereignty of God (His right and power to do as He pleases), we have no right to question God or accuse Him of wrongdoing. And with specific reference to election, God says, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Rom. 9:15).
Thus, the proper conclusion to be drawn from Scripture is that God elected us to salvation according to His grace alone. And this He did simply because He wanted to.
Now we may move on to the purpose of our election. In consideration of this point, I would like to quote several of the verses listed above, and then summarize at the end.
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” --Romans 8:29
“…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” -- Ephesians 1:4
“But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” --II Thessalonians 2:13
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” --I Peter 2:9
So, we were chosen by God, according to His grace and His own good pleasure, for salvation and sanctification, so that we would be transformed into the image of Christ, holy and blameless before God, and that we would be priests who proclaim the praises of our great and glorious Savior.
By Grace
Through Faith